Share a lonely elevator with one of the rehabilitated? No, never. Not one of them. They could spend seven years at Disney World and you still wouldn't. Did you ever imagine the logistics of buying property and building prisons in a city environment? Look into the cost differential. Who will work there? Who is going to be a prison guard and qualify to be a prison guard? I will tell you who: the noncriminal who lives upstate in some poor community with little opportunity. The same damn place they should build the prison!

Prisons are good and criminals are bad. There are so many variables involved with this scenario -- so why don't we lock up the bad for as long as possible while we figure it all out.

-- Steven Durrant

I believe that the "supermax" prisons you describe are the future, and that they offer a tremendous opportunity to improve our penal system. First of all, were I sent to prison, I would definitely prefer spending my time in solitary environment than constantly worrying about being raped, attacked or killed by more physically powerful inmates -- which I understand is the reality in most prisons. Second, any problems regarding drug abuse are eliminated (provided guards aren't smuggling them in). Finally, using a combination of networked computers, educational software and behavioral shaping, inmates can be educated and trained in a virtually limitless number of areas via computer-based learning, and they can be rewarded for completing assignments (or have computer privileges revoked for failure to do so). In short, these modern prisons offer the first viable opportunity to make prisons nonviolent, nonexploitative, drug-free and even rehabilitative. Whether these opportunities are actually realized is, of course, the real question.

-- Jason

Maria Russo's cover article, "Psycho Factories," misuses the word "psycho." "Psycho" is short for "psychotic," a word that describes people who hallucinate or are delusional -- some of the mentally ill.

I don't know which is more offensive: Russo's racism in implying that the largely black prison population is mentally ill, or her victim-blaming denigration of the mentally ill by implying that they deserve to be in prison. Persons with schizophrenia are, in fact, on average less violent than the general population.

I'm sure Russo didn't mean to even mention mental illness in her article. But she did, in her title and her quotes. She is crushing the mentally ill with her pen and should be more careful.

-- Ted Helm

I read and enjoyed your prison story. But I have problems with some of the terminology. You used the term "Black Muslim."

"Black Muslim" is an offensive phrase. And it is not the first time I have seen it on your Web site. Muslims come in different colors and races. Why do you feel it necessary to single out Muslims who are African-American? If you were referring to an African-American who is a member of the Nation of Islam, please say so instead of Black Muslim. If you were referring to a Sunni Muslim who happens to be black, please say so. The way you used the term "Black Muslim" is as if black people are not supposed to be Muslim. Please refrain from using it -- it doesn't matter what the AP Stylebook says; it is offensive.

I am a journalist who happens to be black, female and a Christian.

-- Richelle Turner Collins

Read Damien Cave's interview with "Going up the River" author Joseph Hallinan.

I look forward to reading the Hallinan book. Many of his observations echo my experiences. He does recognize some of the most important patterns in current U.S. penology.

However, Hallinan makes a huge mistake in failing to recognize that public prisons also have a "profit" motive that can cost taxpayers more than private prisons. (See Frank Zimring's 2001 book from OUP for an analysis of how the California prison guard union helped implement the infamous "3 Strikes" program, thereby assuring continued growth for their union and the public prison market sector.) Hallinan also -- in the interview -- misstates the data on private vs. public prison costs, and ignores the data on private vs public efficacy.

Having worked as everything from a guard to a transportation officer to a caseworker to a dining room manager to a visitor to an expert witness in a number of state prisons, I think there is something missing in the debate. Hallanan -- as do many others -- appears to ignore how often state corrections departments become the employer of first resort for politically well connected. In one of the states where I worked, five of us were constantly asked to do the work of the sixth member of the team. (Our moms didn't know the governor.)

I hope that when I find the book it will deliver a much more nuanced and accurate picture of prisons.

-- Tom Durkin

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"